If you’re running an ecommerce business, then there is no tool more important for you company than a cloud inventory solution. A cloud inventory is the basis of your operations, providing a clean and organized infrastructure needed to manage your goods.
However, picking the right cloud solution can be a bit overwhelming. But that’s why we’re here to help!
What is Cloud Accounting and What Can It Do For You?
With all your business being in the cloud, here are some benefits of cloud based accounting:
- Productivity – with the organized and structured workflow regarding ordering, receiving, and shipping, your operational tasks will become a breeze. This in turn will help your business run efficiently.
- Multi-channel support – This means regardless of how many channels you are selling on, the inventory quantities will be updated automatically across all channels. This will avoid selling products you don’t have in stock.
- Analytics – with a cloud inventory, you will be able to obtain key metrics such as profitability per product, best/worst selling products, ordering guidance, and consolidated sales.
- Accounting integration – cloud inventory also helps out your accountants by giving them access to all the sales order data, inventory costs, and costs of goods sold. This information can also be pushed into a cloud accounting software (like Xero).
Cloud Based Accounting Sofware Features To Look For
- Integration with shopping carts and marketplaces
- Inventory management
- Purchase orders
- Shipping integration
- Coexistence with accounting platforms
- Detailed accounting analytics and data
These are the key features of all cloud based accounting software solutions. However, sometimes you are provided extra features that mold to your business strategy such as:
- Point of Sale (POS) support
- Kitting or bundling
- Drop shipping support
- Light manufacturing
- Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) support for business-to-business (B2B) orders and third-party logistics (3PL) warehouse integration
How to choose the right cloud based accounting software
So with all this information, what is the best approach to picking the right cloud solution? Well there are a couple questions Xero suggests you should ask yourself:
- Does it have all the core and optional features you need (eg, multi-channel, drop ship, point of sale)?
- Does it integrate with your marketplaces and shopping carts?
- Does the investment make sense for your budget?
- Do they support your target market, eg, do they have other customers in your space, whether that’s apparel, food products, light manufacturing, general products or something else?
- When you contact the provider are they responsive?
- Do they support your timezone? There are some great products internationally but not all have support hours that match your work.
One of smartest steps your business can take is integrating the proper cloud inventory solution. When this is done, you are getting the opportunity to optimize your ordering, receiving, and inventory, in order to focus on growth and surpassing expectations.
